Are Consumer Discretionary Stocks Lagging American Woodmark (AMWD) This Year?
The Consumer Discretionary group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has American Woodmark (AMWD) been one of those stocks this year? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Consumer Discretionary sector should help us answer this question.
American Woodmark is one of 281 individual stocks in the Consumer Discretionary sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #12 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.
The Zacks Rank is a proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. American Woodmark is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMWD's full-year earnings has moved 22.4% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.
Our latest available data shows that AMWD has returned about 55.3% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Consumer Discretionary group have gained about 4.7% on average. This means that American Woodmark is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.
Another Consumer Discretionary stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is K12 (LRN). The stock has returned 44.9% year-to-date.
For K12, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 5.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, American Woodmark belongs to the Furniture industry, which includes 9 individual stocks and currently sits at #42 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 8.4% so far this year, so AMWD is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
In contrast, K12 falls under the Schools industry. Currently, this industry has 19 stocks and is ranked #73. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +21.4%.
Investors with an interest in Consumer Discretionary stocks should continue to track American Woodmark and K12. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.
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